Chinese Love Foreign Cars, Want Their Government To Drive Domestic

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

Western media widely reported ( and still reports) that the Chinese government will only allow Chinese cars to be bought by its functionaries.

Not so. The rule exists in draft form only,and has been published to elicit public feedback. However, in a disturbing development, China Daily reports that “nearly 90 percent of respondents in a survey are in favor of China’s domestic independent-brand automobiles for governmental use.” It’s not that 90 percent said so. It’s the ominous fact that it is being published in a government-owned paper.

If the survey is correct, then Chinese citizens want to look down on the car choices of their rulers. The Chinese themselves are widely in favor of foreign cars. 70 percent of all cars bought in China are foreign branded. The appetite for foreign branded cars remains high,as the following tables show.

Here are tables of China’s best selling cars and SUVs as of February 2012, courtesy of the China Assosciation of Automobile Manufaturers CAAM.

As you can see, the top selling car list is populated nearly exclusively by joint venture cars. The only exception: The BYD F3. That is a blatant copy of the Corolla.

On the SUV list, the Haval is said to be inspired by the Toyota 4Runner and the Isuzu Axiom. Tde BYD S6 on the list can be converted into a Lexus RX 350 with a few pieces of chromed plastic.

China Top 20 Passenger Cars, February 2012RankModelsMakersDeliveries1Buick ExcelleShanghai-GM23,5642VW LavidaShanghai-VW21,9963Chevy CruzeShanghai-GM20,6624VW BoraFAW-VW18,3775VW JettaFAW-VW18,3656VW PassatShanghai-VW17,9067Chevy Sail, 3-boxShanghai-GM16,6298FAW Xiali seriesFAW16,5669Elantra-YuedongBeijing-Hyundai15,31510Nissan TiidaDongfeng-Nissan15,31111Great Wall Voleex C30Great Wall Motor15,09712Toyota CorollaFAW-Toyota14,77713Hyundai VernaBeijing-Hyundai14,29814BYD F3BYD13,49215Nissan SunnyDongfeng-Nissan13,17016Toyota CamryGAC-Toyota13,07217Skoda OctaviaShanghai-VW13,05218Toyota Corolla-HuaguanFAW-Toyota12,37519Chery QQChery Auto11,23420Nissan SylphyDongfeng-Nissan10,406China Top 10 SUVs, February 2012RankModelsMakersDeliveries1VW TiguanShanghai-VW15,4872Haval H seriesGreat Wall Motor14,4173Toyota RAV4FAW-Toyota10,2644BYD S6BYD9,8345Nissan QashqaiDongfeng-Nissan9,3996Honda CR-VDongfeng-Honda9,0567Toyota HighlanderGAC-Toyota7,5768Hyundai ix35Beijing-Hyundai7,0249Audi Q5FAW-VW6,71610Chery TiggoChery Auto5,984
Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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  • Shipwright Shipwright on Mar 11, 2012

    Maybe the Chinese public want (by forcing their political leaders to drive/ride in domestic vehicles)to force improvements in the quality of the homegrown makes. Being forced to use low quality vehicles may give those in power the impetus to expedite much needed amalgamation and improved safety standards.

  • Tekdemon Tekdemon on Mar 12, 2012

    I don't think this is much different than us expecting the President to ride in a Caddy or Lincoln only, or our fleets of police cars being ford/chevy even though nobody actually buys crown vics for personal use (and nobody buys impalas unless they're getting them insanely cheap)

  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
  • Oberkanone Where is the value here? Magna is assembling the vehicles. The IP is not novel. Just buy the IP at bankruptcy stage for next to nothing.
  • Jalop1991 what, no Turbo trim?
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